Millions of small businesses are anxiously awaiting their slices of a $350 billion relief program that forms part of
the government's $2 trillion economic support package. However, with just hours to go before the launch, major banks are still awaiting guidance from the Treasury Department on how to lend the money — and some haven't even decided whether they will participate.
In a strongly worded statement, one of the nation's biggest lenders said the much-touted relief program for small business owners wasn't ready for prime time.
"Financial institutions like ours are still awaiting guidance from the SBA and the U.S. Treasury," Chase Bank said in an email to business customers, referring to the Small Business Administration. "As a result, Chase will most likely not be able to start accepting applications on Friday, April 3rd, as we had hoped."
The bank said it would post electronic updates on its website and Twitter account and send emails when it was ready to start participating.
At a White House news briefing Thursday afternoon, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin maintained that the program is ready to go, and said he wasn't aware of the complaints. "We just put up the federal register with the new guidelines for lenders,” he said. “I've been assured that the banks will start lending tomorrow.
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Banks warn of ‘utter chaos’ in new small business lending program